


Stainstar's Destiny

by cabinet_man



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Cannibalism, F/M, Prophecy, Starvation, Trauma, spoilers in the tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-10-05 09:20:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20486522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cabinet_man/pseuds/cabinet_man
Summary: Many moons ago, a prophecy foretold the birth of a cat with the eyes of StarClan and the Place of No Stars. Their destiny would be determined by the way they would be raised. When the kit was born, however, the camp was flooded and they were swept away in all of the chaos. The body had never been found, and the Clan assumed the kit had perished.A molly of the forest had heard the story many times, and laughed at the irony of the situation. But when she stumbles across a barn and comes into contact with a tom who knows nothing of his childhood, she begins to question whether or not there was more to the story than that.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! i'm super excited to finally be able to publish this- stainstar was my first warrior cats oc, and i'm absolutely ecstatic to finally have the chance to put his story out there for others to read!
> 
> now, considering i've had him since late 2012, a LOT has changed about him. he's gone from being an overpowered scourge clone to a villain who became evil from the trauma he was put through at such a young age. do mind the tags, despite the fact that they contain spoilers. i have this fic set as M for a reason, because i tend to be very graphic and descriptive in relation to writing gore
> 
> but without further adieu, i present to you: stainstar's destiny

The air was chilly as the sun began to rise over the horizon. There was a shallow fog hanging in the atmosphere, coating the forest in a small amount of dew and moistening the air.

Atop the fence sat a relatively small tom, his eyes scanning over the horizon as he watched the sunrise with narrowed pupils. He lifted a back foot to scratch at his ear and the golden bell attached to his collar jingled loudly. But his attention was soon placed on another feline who entered the farmgrounds. Her fur was silver, with lighter stripes running down her back all the way to the end of her tail. The tomcat noticed a lack of neck accessories, and curiously leaned down over the fence.

“Howdy!” The younger cat greeted, his tail swaying behind him.

The she-cat looked up at him, and with a forced mew she said, “Greetings.”

“The name’s Stain!” He proudly exclaimed. “I live here, on the farm.”

The silver cat stopped herself from rolling her eyes. She’d never been too fond of others, especially if they were younger, like this tom was. She forced a smile onto her face.

“You can call me End. I live wherever I would like,” she said as politely as she could. Stain seemed pleased with that, and hopped down beside her. She was taller than he thought she would be, and he had to take a few steps over so he could see her properly.

“Do you live in the forest? Are the cats that live in there mean? My mama told me never to set foot past the trail over yonder,” Stain said, nodding towards the dirt road that he’d seen the farmer and his horse trek hundreds, possibly thousands, of times before. They left this morning, to deliver carrots and other vegetables to the shop in town. Stain had always wanted to go see it, but every time he would hop onto the cart, the farmer would gently place him back down on the ground again and tell him ‘no.’

Now, this cat was a curious one, End decided. He seemed nosy, and she would have preferred talking to those Clan cats over this tom any day.

“Sometimes,” the silver tabby responded with, “I haven’t been there in a while. The cats are… decent. Just a nuisance. They chase anyone and everyone that isn’t part of their group out of their territories. They have plenty of food, I don’t see why they need anymore.”

She paused a moment, and then looked down at Stain.

“Let me show ya something,” she said, sitting down and facing towards the kittypet. She pushed her arm forward so that her shoulder could be seen far more easily, and turned her head slightly. A winding scar from the back of her neck to the center of her front arm was clearly visible, and Stain gasped a little at the sight.

“Those cats did this to me because I caught a mouse on their territory,” she stated, and Stain looked up at her.

“That’s awful!” He yelped, eyeing the wound. “I- Why would they? You weren’t threatening them!”

“I wouldn’t say that,” End mumbled, and suddenly Stain’s expression grew into confusion.

“What do you mean?” He asked, and the she-cat found herself grinning a little. The tom failed to noticed her claws unsheathe, and took a step closer.

“One of their trainees was in my way, so I decided to teach him a lesson,” she said, standing up tall. Stain hopped back towards the fence, and he found himself shaking a little. The bell rattled ever so slightly as he pressed himself up against the wooden barrier.

“I don’t take too kindly to strangers, especially annoying ones who always have to stick their nose in another cat’s business,” the she-cat hissed, the fur on her back prickling up a little as she slowly drew closer to the tom. Her sea-green eyes were slits as she cornered Stain. A growl was bubbling up in the back of her throat.

“So, kittypet, how about you run along before I tear your throat out,” she snarled, and that sent Stain scrambling up over the fence and back to safety.

As soon as he was out of sight, End couldn’t help but snort. She always loved scaring cats like him, by lulling them into a false sense of security and then making them jump out of their skin by threatening them. She wouldn’t actually hurt him, she just wanted him to leave her alone. She had other matters to attend to, anyhow.

Stain, however, holed himself up in the barn. His brothers tried everything to get him to talk, but it was no use. He was scared, horrified. He never new cats could be so vicious.

He spent the next week entirely in his owners’ home and refused to step out. And when they tried to carry him out, he'd panic and scramble back inside before they had a chance to close the screen door.

The day he finally exited the house, he had found the she-cat returning from her trip. She looked up at him, her tail lashing.

“I'm surprised you even came back outside,” she said. “Normally cats like you are terrified to even think about the possibility of what could've happened.”

“You don't scare me,” Stain responded, but felt a bile rising up in his throat.

“That's cute,” End commented, and hopped up onto the fence beside the kittypet. Stain shifted a little away from her, but the she-cat only followed and scooted closer. The fur on his neck bristled a little as he felt her brush up against him.

“I’m being serious,” he says again, to reassure himself. This she-cat doesn’t scare him. She’s only ever bluffed, right? She wouldn’t _really_ hurt him... right?

Stain eyed her suspiciously, as if to make sure she wasn’t going to hurt him. End could have very easily pushed him off of the fence, but she only sat there beside him, staring out at the sun as it began to ascend upwards from out of the mountains. The breeze was soft, and Stain couldn’t help but notice just how mesmerized End seemed at that moment. Maybe she really wasn’t so scary after all.

Her gaze eventually was directed towards him, though, and those seafoam orbs seemed to pierce his skin. He could practically feel the sharpness in her eyes, and winced. End purred.

“I won’t actually hurt you, kid,” she said in an attempt to reassure him. Stain let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, and End couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

But then the molly hopped off of the fence, and looked up at the kittypet from her spot on the ground.

“Do you trust me?” She asked.

“No,” Stain responded in a heartbeat. End snorted at that.

“I don’t blame ya,” responded the she-cat, but then she paused a moment. “Well, do you at least want to see something cool?”

Stain grew silent, contemplating the offer. He glanced back at the farm.

“They won’t even know you left,” End stated. “Come on, we’ll have you back by sundown. I promise.”

“I dunno…” He said, nervously flexing his claws. “Is it safe out there?”

“Not really,” End said, and she could see Stain’s pupils contract, “But you’ve got me. Cats out there, they respect me. You’ll be fine.”

That’s what finally caused Stain to hop down from his spot up on the fence.

“Alright,” he said, “I trust you.”

“What changed your mind?” End couldn’t help but ask, remembering what the tom had said only moments before. He shrugged.

“Everyone deserves at least one chance,” he responded. End grinned in a Cheshire kind of way.

“Alright, kid.” Her gaze was focused on him as she led him into the forest. “Destiny awaits.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello!! i've had ch. 2 in my docs for a good while, although only today did i finally get the chance to finish it! hopefully it's up to par!

The sun shone down through the orange-red leaves of the trees as End led Stain along the covered trail. It must have been around noon, Stain noted, as he looked up at the sky. The sun was directly overhead, casting a brilliant glow down on the two cats as they trotted alongside one another. The farmer would have just been arriving in town, and Stain idly wondered if he saw sights like this every single day when he left the farm.

End was mostly silent as she walked, but the silence wasn’t an awkward one. Not really.

Her ears were perked, and her nose twitched every so often, Stain took notice of. He could easily assume that it was because, well, they were in dangerous territory. The wild cats that lived out here could appear at any given moment, and he didn’t think he wanted to have any run-ins with them just yet. In fact, he never really wanted to even meet any of them.

His foster parents, Jess and Asher, told Stain multiple times to never leave the safety of the farm. The stories that the two told him had been enough to give the tom nightmares for days on end. The amount of times that he had woken up, crying out for Jess to comfort him, were countless.

Stain was fully aware that Jess and Asher were not his parents the moment that Jess had a litter of puppies- Holly, Brutus, and Wren- and possibly even before then. Stain meowed, liked fish and cow milk, and would never be as large or as fluffy as the two German Shepherds who barked, had a strong dislike towards fish and cow milk, and were half the size of the farmer when they stood on all four paws. He wondered about his real parents from time to time, and was curious about whether or not he had biological siblings that were cats and not dogs. Nonetheless, Jess and Asher raised him and cared for him just as any good parents would.

The German Shepherds were only looking out for Stain’s well-being when they told the then-kit about their encounter with the vicious cats of the forest.

They had been trying to find the sheep that had been lost in the flood, and that’s when they came across the group for the first time. They hadn’t known what to do, because the cats were chattering to one another rather excitedly, until a twig snapped under Asher’s weight and they all turned to face the two dogs. The smaller cats disappeared into the brush, as the rest began to circle them. Asher started to bark at them in an attempt to get them to disperse, but one of the cats drew closer and lashed out, clawing his muzzle. He stumbled back, and Jess lurched forward, protecting her mate. The cats didn’t stop, though, and the two turned back, tails between their legs while they whimpered all the way back to the farm.

Stain wondered what could have provoked the cats to act that way, but he decided not to dwell on it. The forest cats were nothing but savages, and would hurt anyone who dared to trespass on their land.

He never thought he’d actually be a trespasser, but End even said it herself: she was respected. At least, he believed she was, anyhow. For all he knew, she could have just said that in order to get him to follow her out of the safety of the farm.

But even if she really wasn’t respected, Stain had to admit that this sight was absolutely breathtaking to him. If this was the last thing he saw before his death, he’d be perfectly content with that. Walking through the dead, colorful leaves and smelling the scent of summer turning into autumn was no doubt one of the best things he could have ever done. He could die right then and there, and he’d be happy about it.

The leaves crunched loudly under his paws, and he noticed how End’s ears twitched at each and every crackle and snap and crushing noise, but she didn’t seem to mind much, because she had been doing the same. Stain had noticed that she made the noises deliberately, though, and he couldn’t help but grin at the thought of the she-cat acting rather childish. Then again, fall usually brought out the inner kit or pup in everyone. His foster siblings loved to dive into the piles of leaves that the farmer cleaned out of the barn and pastures.

“You’re smiling,” End suddenly spoke up, her seafoam eyes trained on Stain for only a moment before returning to the path ahead of them.

“Yes,” Stain replied, “‘s something wrong with that?”

“No, no,” she said, then paused. The crunching seemed to stop. “I’m just not sure what there is to be smiling about.”

They locked eyes again and Stain noticed he had been padding faster than End. He slowed his pace to match hers.

“There’s always a reason to smile,” Stain said as he crushed another leaf under his paw. “The colors of the leaves, the smell of upcoming fall, crunching leaves under your paws… who wouldn’t smile?”

“It’s not so spectacular,” End stated rather bitterly. “Leaf-bare is coming quickly. If you don’t catch prey before it all disappears underground or in the trees now, there’s not a single chance that you’ll survive the season. The Clan cats hoard prey for themselves around this time. Food is becoming scarce, it’s getting colder…”

“‘Leaf-bare?’” Stain repeated, as if he didn’t hear her words quite right.

“When the snow falls,” End elaborated. Of course a kittypet wouldn’t know the dialect of the forest, nor would he know how ruthless the cold months were. He’d be happily sitting inside of a twoleg den, warming up by a blazing fire while he was fed some kind of “fancy,” disgusting slosh of fake meat.

“If you lived out here, I’m certain you’d understand that not everything is so simple,” she added. She stepped on another leaf, effectively crunching it under the pads of her paw. “Leaf-fall isn’t a time to smile. If you don’t work hard enough to get a source of food, you may as well call yourself dead.”

“But you can work and still have fun,” Stain argued. “It’s good to take breaks every once in a while. You could jump in a pile of leaves during a break.”

“I don’t think you understand the severity of the situation,” End retorted. “Besides, leaves scare away prey in the surrounding area. It could take forever to find them again once they’ve scattered. Better to be safe than sorry. Or in this case, it’s better to have no fun than be starving to death in freezing temperatures.”

Stain was about to argue that point, as well, but stopped as he heard a sound of a branch snapping from somewhere ahead of them. End must have heard it too, because she froze in place, eyes trained forward. She seemed almost tense, and Stain began to grow nervous.

From the underbrush jumped a black cat with thick, tangled fur. His eyes were golden, as he stared down Stain and End. He was soon accompanied by another tom, but he was a sandy color and much larger than the black cat. His eyes were an unusual shade of light violet. He barreled the other over as he leaped out from the ferns and bushes, and Stain winced as he heard something crack.

“You mouse-brain!” The black cat hissed, shoving his partner off of him.

“Not my fault you suddenly decided to stop in the middle of the path,” the sand-colored tom growled, then took notice of the two grey cats that stood a few fox-lengths away from them.

“End!” He greeted as if he were seeing a childhood friend for the first time in years, but his voice still held a growl to it.

“She’s not allowed here,” the black cat said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. “And she’s especially not allowed to bring others here, either.”

“Someone’s got a knot in their fur,” End finally spoke up, and Stain backed up behind her. “You two out on border patrol, I take it?”

The sandy tom snorted, “Nightingale here got us separated from the rest of our group. He said we’d cover more ground if halfa us went one way, the other half the other way. We’re all meetin’ back up at camp.”

“I told you not to call me that,” “Nightingale” hissed, and the other tom could only laugh at that. He looked back at End. “Ravenstar said that if you step foot onto our territory again, then we’re allowed to get rid of you permanently.”

“Really now?” End replied, stepping closer to the two toms as Stain considered turning back, but his paws wouldn’t move from where they were situated. “Then do it. I dare ya.”

The two toms glanced between one another, one pair of eyes looking icier than the other.

“We could just let her go, Blackbird,” the sandy tom suggested. Stain couldn’t help but ponder the different names the black cat had. Forest cats sure had odd traditions.

End smirked. “I like Dusty’s idea.”

“Of course you do,” said the tom, who was either named Nightingale or Blackbird. He rolled his eyes while Dusty chuckled a little.

“She’s not doing any harm, y’know,” said Dusty. “And I don’t really feel like fightin’ today. We’ve already done enougha that with ShadowClan lately.”

“ShadowClan’s causing trouble again?” End asked, sarcasm lacing her voice. “I would’ve never guessed.”

“Mothstar received a prophecy,” said Blackbird/Nightingale. “She’s been on edge ever since, and thinks that we have something to do with it.”

“Ravenstar and her have been at each other’s throats lately, too. ShadowClan keeps on crossin’ the border so we gotta up our patrols. We’re the fourth one to be set out today,” said Dusty. “Songbird and me were hopin’ not to get picked, but here we are.”

The newly dubbed Songbird/Blackbird/Nightingale had seemed to accept his fate of never-ending bird-based names, and Stain wondered how he could remember the assortment of names he was given.

“Ravenstar was like, ‘The Sunhigh patrol will consist of Brightsky, Mintpaw, Deertail, Dustnose, and Featherfoot,’” Dustnose said. “You can tell that Featherfoot ain’t too happy with his choices of cats.” The tomcat beamed while Featherfoot frowned, and Stain had come to the realization that Featherfoot had a lot of nicknames and not actual names.

“It’s for the good of the Clan,” said the less enthusiastic tom, then looked back towards Stain. “Since when do you have traveling companions, End?”

End paused at that, then glanced behind her as if she had forgotten that the farm-cat was even there in the first place. She looked back to Featherfoot.

“He wanted to see what the forest was like,” she stated simply.

“Aren’tcha gonna introduce us?” Asked Dustnose. End seemed hesitant for a moment, before beckoning for Stain to step forward. The grey tom did so, albeit very reluctantly.

“This here’s Stain. He lives out on that farm that’s out past the border,” said the she-cat. “Stain, this here’s Dustnose and Featherfoot. They’re warriors from ThunderClan.”

“It’s nice to meet y’all!” Bubbled Stain, suddenly very enthusiastic about the situation.

“The feeling is mutual,” Featherfoot said, although Stain wasn’t convinced that he was speaking the truth.

Dustnose bumped into his companion. “C’mon, be a little nicer to the kid,” he said.

“He’s an outsider. We’re not supposed to be friendly with him,” Featherfoot grumbled.

“You’re never friendly with anyone, though,” pouted Dustnose.

“Yes I am!” The black cat snapped, and Dustnose laughed.

“Anyone other than me,” the sandy tom snorted. He affectionately pressed his muzzle to the side of Featherfoot’s.

“Anywho, we gotta be gettin’ back to camp. If we ain’t back soon then Ravenstar might have a fit,” Dustnose said.

Featherfoot nodded. “We’ll spare you this time. But don’t expect it to happen again.”

And with that, he turned and lurked back into the forest.

Dustnose smiled sheepishly. “Sorry ‘bout him, he’s cranky about havin’ to get up so early. Times are gettin’ too tense between us ‘n’ ShadowClan. It’s really gettin’ to his head.”

“You aren’t gonna actually kill us, are ya?” Stain couldn’t help but ask.

“No, kid, we ain’t gonna do any of that. Featherfoot’s just bein’ angsty for aesthetic purposes.”

“Oh,” said Stain. “Well, that’s a relief.”

“Y’all are welcome to come back anytime, really. Just don’t let Ravenstar catch you two.” And with that, Dustnose followed in Featherfoot’s tracks.

“They didn’t seem so bad,” Stain commented once the sand-colored tom was out of sight.

“That’s ThunderClan for you,” End replied. “They’re the friendliest of the Clans. That’s why I wander out here most of the time.”

“How did you meet those two, anyways? They acted like you were childhood friends.”

“We’ve known each other for a long time, that’s all. But let’s keep moving, yeah?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, featherfoot and dustnose are mates :)
> 
> ashfur-anon.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> comments/kudos/bookmarks are always highly encouraged and appreciated!
> 
> feel free to ask me stuff:  
ashfur-anon.tumblr.com


End file.
